Why the curious reluctance (n = 0 at post time) to give the pillagers of the Napoli their correct name? The Spanish word is raquero, which the DRAE says comes from raque, which it describes as the “act of gathering objects lost on the coasts through shipwreck or cargo spillage.” Etymology suggested is Gothic rakan, cf Dutch raken, English to rake etc. I’d be most surprised if it weren’t actually from the English wreck with possible assists from writers like Robert Louis Stevenson–initial citations in Spanish are from his time–or from the Dutch wrak (more Dutch words in Iberian dialects here), which is quite like Pirate English pronunciation anyway.

Categories: Languages, Les bourgeois, Splog, The law court, The sea

RSS: post comments, blog comments, blog posts

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.